Things Can Come Back
by hello-there-darling42
Summary: Rose crosses over to find the Time Lord Doctor after the death of Tentoo. He erases her memories of the last five years with tentoo upon her request, but what happens when Tentoo isn't dead? What happens when things turn into a wild goose chase between the Doctor, Rose and Tentoo?


There was a knock on those big blue doors that held adventures and promises inside. A knock that ran through the halls following all the way to the Doctor's room, where he was fixing something with his sonic screwdriver. His head lifted up and eyes furrowed in confusion. No one thought anything of a blue box unless they were looking for it, maybe it was Martha. Martha and Mickey, he was wondering how they were. Perhaps they had a kid, maybe they wanted to have some tea or go on some adventures. He'd like that, he had been alone since they all had left over a year ago. The Doctor didn't even realized he had a giant grin on his face as he flung open the TARDIS door and saw-

Rose. He saw Rose.

She didn't look up at him for more than a second because she didn't really want him to see. Instead she slinked past him as if she had been here the whole time and sat down on the bench near the console.

A shot of worry hit through him as he closed the door quickly and made his way over to Rose. Even from a short glimpse he could tell she had been crying, eyes all red and puffy, nose running. He didn't care though, how she looked, he just wanted to know why she was sad and how he could fix that.

"Rose, what's wrong?" He pushed a few stray strands of blonde hair behind her ear and tilted her head up to look at him. She stayed but her eyes still wandered to the floor, refusing to meet his eyes. Because how could she? The Doctor was dead, yet here he was. Living, breathing, and traveling how he always had been. "Rose,"

"He's- he's gone, Doctor." Rose couldn't help but to be overcome with desperate sobs, a ugly noise escaping her chest as he flung his arms around her and embraced her. He couldn't say much to her except a mumble of apologies and how he should've brought them both with them so it wouldn't have happened. But she didn't say anything until five minutes later until she looked up into his eyes.

"You're gone, but you're here." A shaky laugh left her mouth, her voice squeaking as she tried to hold back tears. "Just like last time."

"I'm so sorry, Rose. What happened?" The Doctor's hand lifted up to cup her face as he kissed her forehead gently.

"Apparently we didn't get all the cybermen," She choked out as she pulled away from him, her hands replacing his as she sobbed into them. "He was so stupid, but that was him. It had to be him to go because he didn't want me hurt. But I went anyways of course, was my fault really. He didn't know, and if I wasn't there he would've been able to focus knowing I was safe. But he was worrying and it just came up behind him and…"

Rose shifted back into the Doctor's chest the same noise came from the back of her throat as she heaved through sobs. He just sat there and comforted her. There was nothing he could do because he wasn't him. Besides the biological make up he was part Donna too, and he had only told Rose they were exactly the same so she'd stay with him. But they both knew, he could give her things and say things he never could because he was- well-_human_.

Perhaps it was a Time Lord pride thing, not that it mattered they were gone now, or maybe he was just protecting himself in case she was really gone. Perhaps he just couldn't but it didn't matter, he couldn't give her a normal human life. He could never have kids with her, never settle down in a proper house or mortgage. There was nothing he could do, yeah he supposed that he could tell her he loved her but she was looking for his human counterpart, not him. But she came to him and not someone else on this side of the void, that had to mean something. Or maybe he was the only one she could find.

"Rose," He released her a little and shifter so that her eyes looked at him. There was mascara running down her pretty little face from where her tears ran. Her eyes were red and puffy and her lips pouted out in a frown. She was so sad, and he couldn't do anything about it. "What can I do, Rose? What can I do?"

"Make me forget," She whispered into him as she gripped onto his suit. This suit wasn't the one she was used to anymore, the human Doctor liked the dark blue one better. And she liked it too, but she loved this suit as well.

"A planet, any planet. How about a star or spaceship? Maybe sometime in the past, or the future, we can-"

She covered his lips with her hand and shook her head slowly before speaking. "Make me forget."

His breath hitched at what she was asking. She wanted to erase the memory of him, forget him so she wasn't upset anymore. She was still here with the Doctor, so she could have just assumed she went with him on that beach. Or she could forget the event completely on that day.

"Rose… Rose you, you shouldn't. You should remember, remember what you had with him."

"Why?"

"Because I wouldn't erase you, and he wouldn't either, if it was opposite."

"Yeah, but there isn't another me. There's another him, it'll be like nothing has changed."

The Doctor stared at her, stunned silent by her words. Another _him_, is what she said. It wasn't supposed to hurt but it did. He was a replacement to his human self, he actually mentally laughed at the thought. Him, the Doctor, was a replacement for someone he created basically. That stung, just a little.

"I don't want you to forget,"

"But I do,"

"I don't know if i'll be able to recover the memories once they're gone,"

"That's the purpose of forgetting,"

"You came to me to forget?"

"I came to you for help, comfort, reassurance, _home_,"

He probably wouldn't even have thought about it if she hadn't said the last part. He ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated with the situation. He had here, she was right there- although he wasn't sure how she even got there- and he wanted her to remember some other man that looked just like him. He wanted her to grieve because he wasn't sure if he could accept her later on if she just didn't know and he did. But of course, she was Rose. And more importantly she was a _crying_ Rose, and he hated when she was in pain.

"How long," He whispered to her, barely turning to look at her direction. "How long were you two together Rose, how long has it been?"

"Five years,"

He nodded before angling himself towards her again, a mixed expression on his face she couldn't quite read. "I'm going to find the memories and transfer them into mine, in case yours get destroyed when I make you forget them. Don't worry, I'll tuck them in the back of my head and won't look at them."

"Doesn't matter if you do, I can't be mad at you for something I can't recall,"

He nodded uneasily before moving his hands up to her temples. "Are you sure Rose?" She nodded as he began to dive into her head.

It would have been pleasurable, to feel another presence in his mind again, but he was so anguished by even considering doing this to her that it was rather painful. He had to invade her memories to find the right ones and luckily there was a door just for the human Doctor. So it didn't take long after that to transfer them to the back of his mind and wipe them away, her body falling limply into his arms as he did.

He couldn't look at her for more than a few seconds each the following day or so, especially after learning what they had been through together. Apparently Rose's body had been affected by the Time Vortex when it went in her head so she couldn't have children, and the traveling alone made her less fertile- especially when jumping through the parallel worlds. So they couldn't have children, but Rose didn't mind she had him. They had gotten married on that same beach he left her one- twice. She said something about making the bad things good, it ended something but it started them. They lived together in the flat, had jobs at torchwood. Apparently they hadn't wanted to grow the TARDIS coral, and just kept it as a memory in case one day they did. Although Rose wasn't very fertile, she still was somewhat and managed to conceive a child with him. She miscarried though, she pretended she didn't care but she cried a lot when no one else was around. That was about two years ago and they went on living their lives, happy and lovely. Until the cybermen attack.

Torchwood over there apparently developed some sort of weapon against cybermen that shorted them out basically, but you needed it to touch them- which is what made it dangerous and why he had wanted her to stay away. Just like she told him, he was distracted by her and got himself killed. She held his body and cried for two hours straight before letting it go. She then searched for a crack in the universe and popped through, not even staying for his funeral. She hadn't said goodbye, she just left. She left and ended up here, with him.

Their whole life was just a big ball of guilt inside the real Doctor's chest. She couldn't have kids really, and when she did get pregnant she miscarried for some unknown reason. And then he went off and died, and she left everything behind in the hopes of finding him again. She didn't say goodbye to her mum or Pete or even little Tony. She left a note, and the Doctor imagined that Jackie had found it by now and was probably crying the way Rose did when she miscarried. Their babies gone forever.

Rose hummed about happily inside the TARDIS, she asked where the last five years of her life went. He had told her she had amnesia and probably wouldn't remember, but other then that she was fine. She had asked what happened the the human Doctor at the beach. He told her he chose to stay behind while she went with him, he said that universe needed protecting and he even had some TARDIS coral to grow for himself. She asked where he mum was, he told her the truth about this. Her smile faltered but she kept being happy with him.

There was something about all of this that wasn't right. It wasn't just the fact that Rose didn't have her memoires or that he did, or the fact that he left her with a human that went and died on her. It was something else that wasn't right, it was poking inside his head, a slight buzzing of a presence he wasn't sure of but had a fear of what it might be. The only thing that could make that connection was a Time Lord, even a human one. What if he hadn't actually died and he just erased all her memories for no reason. He could have used a teselecta and just hid inside it, maybe someone owed him a favor when they had helped on missions. He saw them dealing with a teselcta at one point, took form of some dead person. They set up a part of Torchwood that they could use, and he could very well have used it. In fact, he had.

Very far away, in a parallel word there was the Doctor. A Doctor who wore a blue suit with only one beating heart and was made from a hand in a jar. A Doctor who was frantically searching for Rose. He didn't want her to believe that he was dead, it had been two days and something went wrong so he hadn't gotten out until then. No one knew what was happening except a few people, he didn't even tell Rose- didn't see the need to.

But as he burst into the Tyler mansion- to their surprise to find a guy who was supposed to be dead and a lot of explanations- he learned Rose had left, only leaving a note. A note saying she was finding the Time Lord Doctor and probably wouldn't come back, but if she did she would see them first thing. She told them she was sorry but she couldn't stay here, there was nothing left here for her. No stars, or a TARDIS, no Doctor. (The human Doctor had actually been growing the TARDIS somewhere safe and it was supposed to be a surprise for Rose, but she had left just as it was about to be done.)

The human Doctor cried at this, alone in the guest room of the mansion. And did the one thing he could think of doing, he ran inside this new TARDIS and tried to connect with his other self as he crossed over into the normal universe.

The Time Lord didn't know what was poking at his mind, and he had no confirmation that his assumptions were correct- although they clearly were- so he left, leaving the human on a wild goose chase of finding them before his time runs out.


End file.
